New Delhi: The Bombay High Court ruled on Tuesday that the Maharashtra government’s 2021 directives allowing only persons fully vaccinated against COVID-19 to travel in local trains were “illegal” and violated the fundamental rights of citizens.
The court was hearing a bunch of PILs challenging the prohibition on use of local trains in Mumbai by unvaccinated people. The petitions said such a prohibition was illegal, arbitrary and in breach of the citizens’ fundamental right to move freely across the country as guaranteed by Article 19 (1) (d) of the Constitution.
A division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice MS Karnik said that the three directives signed by the government’s then chief secretary Sitaram Kunte were not on the lines of the Disaster Management Rules, news agency PTI reported.
“The orders passed by the former chief secretary were in clear diversion of the prescribed procedure. Due to the illegal orders, the fundamental rights of citizens were brazenly affected,” the Bombay HC said.
Anil Anturkar, the government’s attorney, informed the court that the three orders in question (issued on July 15, August 10 and August 11, 2021) were withdrawn.
“In spirit of the observations made by the high court, the three orders are withdrawn. The state executive committee would be holding a meeting on February 25 following which fresh directives would be issued,” Anturkar said.
“We may withdraw the prohibition (on use of local trains by unvaccinated people or those who have taken one dose) or may impose it based on the present COVID-19 situation,” Anturkar further said.
The bench pointed out that the number of Covid-19 cases in Mumbai on Monday was the lowest in 20 months. As per BMC data, Mumbai reported 96 new Covid-19 cases on Monday, the lowest single-day rise after April 17, 2020.
“We hope and trust that the state executive committee takes an appropriate decision on February 25, keeping in mind the declining trend of COVID-19 cases,” the HC added, before scheduling a hearing on February 28.
The HC bench observed that the government directives violated state disaster management rules and were made in his individual capacity as chairperson of the state executive committee without consultation with the other members.
“The chairperson has the powers to pass such orders only in emergency situations. But, we opine that none of the three orders rendered an emergent situation warranting the former chief secretary to pass such orders,” the High Court said.
The bench had on Monday asked the government if it was willing to withdraw the three circulars as they were not passed following proper procedure.
Niles Ojha, counsel for one of the petitioners in the case, said that the state government failed to apply its mind when developing the SOPs and it discriminated between vaccinated and unvaccinated people. “This, despite the fact that neither the Center nor the Maharashtra government had made vaccination mandatory,” Ojha had said.
(With PTI Inputs)
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